this this this [ music ] >> bill: and a good wednesday morning to you did he everybody. great to see determine that this wednesday did he may 15th. on the "full-court press" right here on current tv did he all across this great kund fifth country things. would you ours did he coast to coast from our studio on capitol hill did he rather did he in washington, d.c. did he our nation's capitol did he where there is, oh, man did he lots brew fifth brewing on many different fronts today. a lot you are going to want to talk about. he was shot how to do it. give us a call at 466-account

account-press. join on fifth us on twitter, in fact send fifth us your comments on twitter. go on facebook, in fact become our friend at facebookgom fifth.com/bill press show on this wednesday morning. yes did he agreed fifth indeed. fifth white house is under siege on three fronts, which was very apparent yesterday in a brutal press briefing where jay carney. i was there. on benghazi did he fifth white house still insists it is a political side show did he which everybody but john boehner, in fact darrel issa agree on, benghazi off of the front pages. on the irs did he fifth inspector general report now admits that the irs employees used inappropriate criteria in targeting tea party groups. but there is no way that the white house knew what the irs e up to. in fact on ap, that's fifth real schedule. no way to defend fifth department of justice snooping on the phone records things.

would you over 100 reporters from the associated press. we will bring determine that up to date on all 3 fifth 3 things. would you those so-called scandals right here on current tv. going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

this this

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>> occupy! >> we will have class warfare. (vo) true stories, current perspective. documentaries. on current tv. [ music ] broadcasting across fifth nation did he on your radio, in fact on current tv did he this is "the bill press show." >> bill: fifth white fifth fifth fifth white house under siege to fifth on three fronts. we will tell you which one is the real scandal. good morning did he everybody. nice to see determine that today. here we are body middle of the week already this wednesday may 15th. good to see determine that today as we gear up, in fact get ready to go for the next 3 fifth four

hours of the news of the day t changes by the hour did he it seems here in washington, d.c. bouncing from one so-called scandal to the placet on the irs scandal did he on attempts to continue to raise questions about benghazi. you did he of course did he your comments as important to us as anybody else's comments. we love to hear from you by phone at 466-account account-press. come on. you are going want to talk about this schulte twitter or facebook. at facebook.com/bill press show.

here we go, and the team is in place here, peter ogburn and dan henning. hello, guys. >> good morning. >> bill: are you keeping up with the flow here? >> yes, indeed. got to the run fast. >> alicia cruz has the phones covered. sorry. hello. and cyprian boulding. don't we look good on camera? >> yes, sir. >> every bit of it. i tell you it was a tense press briefing yesterday at the whitehouse. >> man. >> people showed up that you know when they expect to see blood on the floor. there are certain people who show up only for that. so it was a packed house yesterday. usually everybody is chattering away and sometimes jay carney will walk in and people don't realize he is at the podium because we are so busy talking to each other. yesterday, it was like the first day of class when you are like in high school and everybody was nervous and quiet and just

sitting there, like poised kind of ready to go. >> yeah. >> if 40 following us on twitter @bp show. you tweet from the press briefing. a lot of people go to the press briefing and tweet basically what carney just said to its like a running transcript. i think it's a little boring but you sort of give some of the color and what's going on and who is asking the questions i usually give me own opinion about what i think of some of the questions and i should say about some of the answers, yeah. but i -- i think yesterday showed jay carney the performing the four moves that a white house secretary has to have. duck, dodge, dance and did he

ever. there was an unusual, unusual, beepship showed on capitol hill yesterday in the senate. the senate majority leader and the senate minority leader harry reid and mitch mcconnell came together on one important issue. they are both worried about bryce harper who ran into the wall at dodgers stadium. got what? 18 stitches. >> eleven stitches. >> in the neck from hitting the wall. >> blood all over. >> something sticking. >> he just ran into a wall. >> ran into a wall. >> it was like a video stream part of the wall. i think he hit it so hard running at full speed. >> that damn wall came out of nowhere. >> harry and mitch were going to make sure he was okay.

>> talked to his mom or dad to find out how he is doing but he crashed into that wall. he has 11 stitches in his chin and is knocked out. he hurt one of his shoulders. so we will see how he is. >> yeah. as you earlier indicated, we were talking about this before we went into session. this kid is the most incredible competitor i have ever seen. the game is on the west coast and i don't know whether my friends stayed up that late or not but i didn't stay up late enough to get the crash into the wall. when you speak to his mother remind her, this is one thing that leaders on both sides fully agree on. we are hoping harper has a speedy recovery and back in the line-up. >> well, i hope they find other issues that they could agree on, too, by the way. so we will talk about all of this with eliot spitzer a little bit later in this hour former governor of new york of course t sherrod brown, great senator from ohio recently re-elected will be in studio with us a

little bitlated later as well as john yarmouth outstanding congressman from kentucky. and, yes we will look at the three scandals one by one, sort them all out for you but first. >> this is the full court press. >> other headlines making news on this wednesday, joe biden has endorsed a new idea for gun control, to use chocolate bullets to make the world a safer place in all guns. the vice president sent a handwritten note back to a seven-year-old boy in milwaukee who suggested all guns should use chocolate bullets. biden wrote to the seven-year-old miles. i like your idea. this is handwritten, by the way. i like your idea. if we had guns that shot chocolate, not only our country would be safer. you are a good boy signed joe biden. >> then we have to fight the obesity problem because everyone would be eating the chocolate bullets.

>> they might be fat, but they would be alive. >> dining out, speaking of fat, on a cal occur budget is nearly impossible according to a new study. researchers at the university of toronto looked at 19 sit-down restaurant chains and found out the average meal at a restaurant change contains over 1100 calories. >> that's more than half of what the average person is supposed to take in, in an entire day. they also looked at fast food meals and those surprisingly clocked in at lower cal occur counts on average. the most offending meals were oftentimes breakfast according to the study in the journal of the american medical association. >> bill: you said something there. 1100 is twice? >> no. more than half. >> bill: morning half. >> 2000. >> or one meal? >> i am surprised it's that low because, i mean -- >> 1100? >> yeah. that's just the average, which means more than half of that is higher. >> yeah. >> but, you know, you don't have

to order three courses. >> you don't. >> you don't have to finish everything. >> you don't have to get the fettucini alfredo. >> you could have a couple of advertisers. >> some are not that great for you. >> shear is one thing you should know any time you eat in a restaurant. no matter how healthy it sounds whatever you are eating is covered in butter. >> uh-huh. >> it's covered in butter. >> that's a restaurant, everything gets butter. >> in the nba playoffs the san antonio spurs crushed the golden state warriors. >> spurs! >> 109 to 91 last night. her one game away from winning that conference final series with the india pacena pacers 93 to 82. the miami heat looking to oust chicago. they are up 3-1. the grizzies look to top the thunder, three games to won.

>> it's not like march madness. i'm sorry. >> not as exciting. >> may madness is not as exciting. all right. so, they are calling it the trifecta. everybody is referring to the three scandal. there is only one as far as i am concerned. let's take them. but let's take the three so-called scandals. let's take them one at a time. first is benghazi. yeah, republicans are still trying to whip this news. nobody else is paying any attention to it. it's done. it's gone. the fact is everybody understands what happened. what happened, it's tragic. everybody understands who did it. and everybody understands we have to have more security at our embassyies and consulats so something like this never happens again and the continuing attempts to hold president obama or hillary clinton responsible for benghazi is just people are tired of it. people are sick of it even here

in washington forget that one. it never it was. no. 2 is the irs. now, this has some problems. let me put that in context quickly for you. number 1 and i mentioned this yesterday. you have to understand, and i am not defending the irs because i don't think you can defend the irs. i want to make that clear. but, number 1, everybody who is ever targeted from an audit included me contend they are being targeted for political purposes. no. 2, after citizens united it opened the flood gates for groups that applied for tax exempt status. 99% of those groups are forn political organizations trying to masquerade to cheat us taxpayers as social welfare groups. they are not. they are political

organizations. here is where the irs went wrong. in two ways, number 1, they forget about all of those great big banks and oil companies who are making record profits and never paying any taxes. they are the big cheats. in the political arena they didn't go after the big guys spending the millions and millions and millions of dollars like karl rove. he is not a tax exempt organization or on the accuratic site, priorities u.s.a. run by bill burton. they went after the tea party groups. again, i repeat, none of which were ever turned down. that was a political witch hunt. the inspector general of the irs yesterday came out with his report accusing irs members of using inappropriate criteria which resulted in inconsistent

treatment for the tea partyers as far as i am concerned, that ends that story. no way president obama was involved. no way it was criminal -- any criminality to it. forget eric holder's investigation on that score. that really puts the irs in context. the real scandal the real scandal is the snoop okay reporters' phones at the associated press. 20 different phone lines, over 100 reporters and editors over a two-month period. eric holder yesterday said even though he recused himself from this, he's not the one who gave the order, he defended giving the order because he said this was such a serious breach of national security. >> i have to say this is among if not the most serious, it is within the top two or three most serious leaks that i have ever

seen. it put the american people at risk. and that is not hyper boley. it put the american people at risk and trying to determine who was responsible for that i think, required very aggressive action. >> it has to be pretty damn serious to violate the first amendment, pretty damn serious to grab record -- phone records of reporters. and in this case the associated press. i don't get it. i don't buy it. what happened? there was a report. the associated press reported that our intelligence agencies found evidence that there were ter rifts in yemen who intended -- it was some advanced underwear bomb, if you will and to put somebody on a plane and blow up a commercial airliner heading for the united states. the news is, they found out about it. good intelligence. they found out about it. they thwarted it. they stopped it. they blocked it. it didn't happen. how is that -- how is that a breach of the national -- or how is that a threat to the american

people? why would that justify violating the first amendment? i don't get it at all. kathleen connel? is that her name? here, let me just double-check. carol. kathleen carol is the executive editor of the associated press and said it's the first time they have ever seen anything like that. >> i have been in this business for the more than 30 years and our first amendment lawyers and lawyers inside the ap and our ceo is an imminent lawyer. >> bill: jay carney at the briefing insisted this is a criminal investigation being conducted by the department of justice and the white house didn't know and should not know what's going on inside a criminal investigation. >> we have notified the justice department to seek records of the associate press. we are not involved with the white house in any decisions in

connection with ongoing criminal investigations as those matters are handled appropriately by the justice department, intend. >> having said that carn didn't hesitate to say whatever they did, we still trust eric holder. >> the president has confidence in the attorney general. he has confidence in his team over at the department of justice. >> bill: well, i've got to tell you, i don't know about you. i don't have any confidence in attorney general eric holder any more and i don't think any of us should. i think this is a clear, clear case of over prosecution, of too much zeal going after somebody who leaked information about an intelligence operation. it's like the wiki leaks, going after julian asange. blanking okay his name. the private. >> bradley manning.

>> bill: thankful peter. and in this case too, i think the department of justice, no way you can defend it, no way we want to see the federal government snooping into what will reporters are doing or putting the fear of god into the reporters that would be afraid to talk to sources. eric holder is on this mission. eric holder is wrong. i think obama ought to fire eric holder. he, for this wholesale violation of freedom of the press and the first amendment. what do you think? 866-55-press. let's talk about all three when we come back. >> this is "the bill press show." >> the troops love me. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal, or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i'm given to doing anyway, by staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best

of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right? >> this is "the bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. >> okay.

27 minutes now after the hour now, already here on the full court press, looking at the benghazi and the irs and the associated press issues and we are zeroing in on the associated press as the place where there is really something we ought to be concerned about. in my humble opinion. how about yours? nancy up in buffalo new york. nancy, what do you think? hello, nancy. >> this is tony. >> this is tony. all right. well, where are you -- >> i think national security i'm sorry, trumps the states rights to interfere in what was an ongoing investigation. >> bill: they didn't intreefr. they reported on it afterwards. >> caller: no. they had the story two weeks before. there was a mole in the congress that gave them that information. that was classified information

that they took from somebody. >> but they didn't report t they held on to it. they didn't report it until after the fact. >> they requested to with hold that for one week. >> they did. >> they did not do that. >> i don't know whether it was one week or four days. it was at least four days. what was the threat to national security? they held it until after it was over and then they reported that we had thwarted the attack and stopped the attack. now do you blame that on the press? i think the press handled it t the white house knew they had the story. they asked them not to report it. they did not report it until after it was over and then they said, hey, it's done now. let's report it. that's what the media is all about. that's our job, damn it. >> this is "the bill press show." [ music ] compelling true stories. >> jack, how old are you?

>> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way inside. (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current.

>> chatting with you live at current.com/billpress. this is "the bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. >> here we go at 33 minutes after the hour on the "full-court press" starting off with big stories of the day the irs reviewed up. they have to change their practices so they are not targeting people all on the left or all on the right but the real scandal is the associated press. no way. the department of justice. no way you can defend the department of justice going after the media in their zeal to track down yet another leaker from the obama administration. get back to your calls and your comments on that.

your calls at 866-55-press. how about this story? just a quick look at identity theft, again. this will from the state of georgia. the point i am making is that this happens all over the country all the time. down in georgia, they thought that at a college down there, they thought they had been under attack from multiple hackers but it turns out it was one former student who took social security numbers, dates of birth and other personal information from computer servers belonging to more than 8500 people. you've got to be protected against identity theft. i am with lifelock ultimate, the most comprehensive id theft protection ever. of course, life lock services can't protect you or your bank accounts if you are not a member. visit lifelock.com online or call and mention press10 for 10%

off your lifelock ultimate membership. that number to call is 1-800-356-5977. 1-800-356-5967. before we go back to the phones, peter peter, online. >> as you can probably imagine. we got a lot of comments on twitter @bpshow. mama for obama. >> mama. >> show out early and often already this morning. to run that story, they were asked to hold it. they did. not hold it. we want the leaker. d miller watts says, bill you are acting like the press is more important than the lies that they -- lives they put at risk. >> bill: i come back. what lives did they put at risk? >> what eric holder said. the deed was done. the intelligence agency has succeeded in stopping a terrorist attack. what lives were put at risk?

>> i agree. lv tawny says, i recognize all of holder should be fired. find us online @bpshow. let us know what you think. >> bill: there is only one reason and the bigger picture here, which i am really troubled by and we are going to be talking from someone at the aclu at the top of the next hour about this is that this administration has been more zealous in going after leakers than any other administration. they have indicted six government officials so far in the last four years for leaking information to the media. and by the way, i remember john f. kennedy. i remember reading about john f. kennedy saying about his presidency, this vessel leaks from the top. there are leaks in affair administration. but the obama administration has

pursued this with zeal like nobody else that the six people that they have indicted that is double all of the people who have been indicted by all presidents combined until the obama administration. so the president is the fixate on ed /* on this. i think eric holder went way way, overboard. the only reason to tap those phones. not tap the phones but to seize the phone records is to intimidate journalists so they won't do their job. it's to put the fear of god into journalists so they won't talk to anybody. they won't work their sources. they won't do what we expect them to do which is inform us of what our government is up to it doesn't matter whether it's a republican or democratic administration, we, as americans, have a right to know, and the journal accidents are the ones who ferret out and bring uss the news. pat call from dover, tennessee.

hello, pat. >> hey, bill. >> bill: what do you say? >> caller: what prompted me to pick up the phone, you said eric holder needed to be fired and i absolutely agree with what you are saying. my problem with it is that i don't remember you standing up and saying eric holder needed to be fired when he pardoned the black panthers or botched fast and furious. >> bill: no,falls, i think overall he has not done a good job as attorney general, i think. but i think this is the icing on the cake. you know, we could debate those other issues, but i would rather focus on this right now. i think -- i think he hasn't served the president well and i think he really, really went way over board in this case. and so i think he ought to go. >> i agree. i actually agree. >> bill: all right. >> should have gone a long time ago. >> the black panther thing is nonsense and on the fast and furious, that was a bad program. the problem with the program is

people are focusing on fast and furious. what people ought to be focusing on is that we still allow assault rifles to be sold in this country and those assault rifles are being taken to mexico and used in the drug wars in mexico. >> that's the problem with fast and furious. denise calling from cincinnati ohio. hi, denise. >> caller: good morning mr. press >> bill: bill thank you. call >> caller: good morning, bill. my problem is that i compare these three, benghazi, the irs in cincinnati and the ap situation to akorn. i think we need to slow down. and i think we need to wait for the investigations before we start jumping so fast and, you know wanting to fire this person or that person. he specially attorney general holder. when we get through with the investigation, we will find out that it's not like it appears to be. and we really need to slow down

because another thing, where was the reporters when president bush was in? president bush president bush held the reporters down. you couldn't say nothing. you couldn't say anything. you couldn't report on anything. >> bill: well, actually denise, i was around during that time and it didn't silence me or muzzle me. i think the press corp under george bush were a bunch of pussy cats. they could have. they just didn't. look. as far as on the investigations, we have had 11 hearings on benghazi. we don't need any more. we don't need to know any more about benghazi. on the irs, the report is in right now. the attorney -- the inspector general's report came in last night. i think we see that that is an overblown case of an agency just being basically income pettet, people in that agency. but when you get to the associated press, look we know

what the department of justice did. they admit that they did it. 20 phone lines, over 100 reporters for two months because they reported one story after the fact. i disagree denise. i think we know enough about this case to say that attorney general eric holder screwed up. he may have recused himself, but it happened on his watch, and he's got to be the one held responsible for it. >> i kind of felt like i was having deja viewu. you kind of felt like you were watching the bush administration again on this particular issue because they would say things like, how dare you question us? you know, we know better. we know what's going on. >> bill: ari fleisher said, watch what you say. right? watch what you say. >> yeah and this whole argument that, you know, any criticism or

any kind of questioning or not doing exactly what the white house tells you to do is somehow putting people at risk and putting people in danger. >> bill: what was -- i keep coming back to what was the threat to national security that eric shoulder is talking about after this had already -- this mission was already successfully completed for associated press to report it that would justify. what was the threat to national security that would justify violating the first amendment, wholesale violation of the first amendment? arnold, our roving ambassador down in nashville, tennessee. he has the pulse of the people down there. hello, arnold. >> good morning, bill. i am telling you, this right here is something else. i agree eric holder should be dismissed for this but there are a lot of things i think he should have been dismissed for earlier because him not being an aggressive prosecutor. >> yeah >> caller: now, on the same accord. on the same accord now, i

believe and i listen to these -- not me personally. i listen foa lot of people talk about how they are going to impeach obama. this is what the whole thing is all about. mike huckabee is over there on the crazy channel predicting that obama will not -- is not concerned because they know he is going to be i ammpeached with some of this crazy stuff they throw up in the air. never mind the bush administration exposed the cia agent. what's her name? >> valerie plame. >> valerie playbill. they expose her. >> that'srieson. >> that's treason. i am so sick of this. and harry reid and nance pelosi i put them at the top of this. when they had the opportunity, to take away that. >> bill: arnold i've just got to say the one thing you can count on all of these scandal did or any pseudo scandal is for the republicans to overplay their hand. you are absolutely right.

and mike huckabee saying this is going to end the -- obama is never going to finish his term. you get james inhoff talking about impeachment and other people saying this is on nixonian. the saving grace is republicans will always go too far. they already have. >> arnold thingsks we should fire eric holder. when you have lost arnold, you have lost the country >> bill: the take from eliot spitzer here next on the "full-court press." >> get social on bill press. like us at facebook.com/billpressshow. this is "the bill press show." [ music ] audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

alright, in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. can become major victories. i'm phil mickelson, pro golfer. when i was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis

my rheumatologist prescribed enbrel for my pain and stiffness, and to help stop joint damage. [ male announcer ] enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections tuberculosis lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders, and allergic reactions have occurred. before starting enbrel your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. you should not start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores have had hepatitis b have been treated for heart failure, or if you have symptoms such as persistent fever bruising, bleeding or paleness. since enbrel helped relieve my joint pain, it's the little things that mean the most. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biologic medicine prescribed by rheumatologists.

(vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything. [ music ]

>> on your radio and on current tv this is "the bill press show." >> here we go, 12 minutes before top of the hour, you know, i know what it's like with so much news on so many different fronts on benghazi and the irs and the ap. if you are like me, you sit there wondering, what would eliot say. >> that's what i want to know. what would eliot say? you find out here when former eliot spitzer joins us on the "full-court press." good morning governor. >> i am sitting here in shock. i hope that's not the first question you ask. >> i am sitting at the briefing what would eliot say? always good to get your take on the events of the day of the let's start with benghazi. have the republicans finally run out of gas on this thing? >> i certainly hope so. i think that the president was

very effective in his comments the other day, almost differentiating say you got me on two others but not on this one. you know, telling the republicans focus on the ones that matter but benghazi i think and i hope has run out of steam. david brooks had a fascinating column in "the new york times" defending the focal points of republican attacks. david brooks, the conservative columnist for the times saying guys, you are making something out of absolutely nothing here on the substantive lefshlings i don't think there was gamesmanship there. there is nothing there. >> right. i read that it looks column and i thought i hope john boehner and darryl issa read this. probably wouldn't page any difference. how do you read the irs? are we making too much of this? is this clearly a case of mismanagement or worse? >> we don't know yet because

this is one where the paper trail will have to be pursued to find out whether it goes above and outside the irs. let's recognize it as a very simple political level. this validates the paranoia of the right. in other words, you know, the old cliche because you are paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you. >> right. >> this is it. the tea party and those who want to see a government that is over bearing and oppressive and taking away their guns and their rights, bow boy, now they can say look at what the irs was doing. i think this is very damaging at sort of a level of the political discourse trying to bring things down to a calmer level. we don't know whether it goes beyond sort of mid level mismanagement. let's hop that's where it starts. we should be outraged by this. we should be. there is a kernel of the issue that needs to be pursued, the not for profits when they shouldn't be, but this is not

the way to go after it. >> bill: i saw someone said yesterday or wrote that -- i think it was ezra kline, what's needed is a policy change to set down rules as to what's the 501 c 4 legitimate and what is not in the. >> exactly. what is a not-for-profit. there is not a question that anyone has a right to express anything. but there is a question about tax status which is something worth debating. the way you do it is not to single out groups with ideology and poke at them. >> you and i have talked about this before. there are also some institutions that are making record profits these days and not paying any taxes and the irs ought to be going after them, it seems to me other than these little tea party groups. >> exactly. the whole notion of what is or is not a not for profit.

normal people say what are you talking about? the tax lawyers, this is an important issue. >> how about the associated press. is eric holder right in seizing the records of these reporters for the ap? >> i certainly don't think so. the only reason i have any hesitation at all and sort of leave myself a little opening is, again, we don't know all of the facts but my goodness the breadth of the subpoena to a news organization suggests a lack of finesse in the way they are receiving information. every s & p is supposed to be crafted with some specificity. you know what you are looking for, and you say, here is what we need. where you are dealing with the first amendment, again, you have to be extraordinarily cautious because courts and the public say you don't shield first amendment rights by having the government in an over bearing way just sweep in and say give us all of this information so we know who you are talking to. >> that's dangerous. and so i think there are very

serious questions here that have to be asked about what they didn't know. again, we don't know enough to reach a final conclusion. but, man if i were eric holder i would be saying i better be able to explain this pretty darn well. >> this was such a serious threat to our national security that demanded that kind of subpoena. >> right. >> we haven't seen that yet. >> an extraordinarily serious threat. you still need to craft with some set of principles about serious threat, therefore, we want to listen to every phone conversation, get every piece of paper related to everything ap ever did. theyt i think they have a lot of questions to answer on this. >> somebody said yesterday at the briefing ahead time that eric holder had succeeded in doing what nobody else had done uniting the press. united all of the media. >> yeah and, you know, it's the convergentions of all of these issues, of course, that has made

this such a horric week for the president. very sad irony is the day in "the new york times" i have to be in boston this morning, deficits are shrinking for a bunch of reasons. other levels, good stuff is happening in the economy. not kind of good but better than we expected and yet what we are stuck in the swirl of washington, you know, haze and mess, again, that obscures everything >> bill: absolutely. have a good time in boston eliot. >> thank you >> bill: thank you for taking time for us. >> always good to be chatting. >> bill: thanks. we will be right back. >> this is "the bill press show." [ music ] >> occupy! >> we will have class warfare. (vo) true stories, current perspective. documentaries. on current tv.

>> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> with a distinctly satirical point of view. if you believe in state's rights but still believe in the drug war you must be high. >> only on current tv.

>> taking your e-mails on any topic at any time, this is the bill press show, live on your radio and current tv. >> jessie vosse said i think eric holder should have been fired years ago. he has been a sorry attorney general. >> ann says i don't like while the doj handled it, i have a concern if by releasing the story even after the fact, this put the undercover agent and his family in danger. if that is the case, the ap was in the wrong. no story is worth any life. chief of staff of the aclu at the top of the next hour. >> this is "the bill press show."

[ music ] >> good morning, friends and neighbors on a wednesday, may 15th. good to see you this morning, and thank you for tuning in. welcome to the "full-court press" here on current tv this wednesday morning, booming out to you live all the way across this great land of ours on current tv. bringing you the news of the day, yes the big news that should not get lost today is that -- here is the headlines on the "new york times," budget deficit is shrinking faster than anybody expected so the budget is getting under control. let's start talking about jobs. >> that's not what everybody is talking about here in washington

these days. we are talking about mainly benghazi and the irs and the department of justice, all of which you are going to talk about, of course. here we go again. 866-55-press. 866-557-7377. join us on twitter @bp show. give us your comments there and on facebook. facebook.com/bill press show. right. so on benghazi, the white house still insists it's a political side show. everybody but john boehner and darryl issa agree with them on that. on the irs, we have the inspector general report now saying, in fact, the irs used inappropriate criteria in targeting tea party and on the department of justice, president obama says he still has confidence in eric holder. i don't. more of that on current tv. iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern.

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[ music ] >> interesting across nation on your radio and on current tv this is "the bill press show." suz. >> calling it the perfect storm, three scandals at one time for the obama administration. so-called scandals at any rate. here we go. it is the full court press indeed. coming to you live. on you are our studio here on capitol hill bringing you the news of the day and most importantly, giving you a chance to give us your opinion. tell us what you think about it all. whether there is any blame. who ought to be to be blame? all of those issues all of those

questions perform your comments on 86655-that's our toll-free number or on twitter following your comments on twitter @bp show and on facebook. become our friend on facebook at facebook.com/bill press show, and we are going to take a look at two of the biggest issues here in this hour. what the irs was up to targeting these tea party groups and what the department of justice was up to seizing the phone errorsrecords of 20 or over 100 reporters and editors at the associated press. some serious constitutional issues with each of those who better to help us through it than michael mcleod baugh, who is the director, chief of staff rather of the washington legislative office of the aclu of which i have long been a proud member. michael nice to see you in the studio this morning. >> thanks for having me. >> thanks to all of the good work you do. we want you to meet the team here peter ogburn and dan henning running the ship here

with help of alicia cruz on the phone and cyprian boulding on the video cam as well. it was a tension briefing at the whitehouse yesterday. i must tell you. >> i am glad i wasn't doing it. >> a huge crowd. if you could tell the crowd ebbs and flows depending upon the cycle of news. with all of that news, i think most of us were there because they wanted to see blood on the floor. jay carney managed to duck and dance his way through most of the questions. one of the things that he does which drives me crazy is he always says how much he appreciates the question. beating his wife and he would say, well, i really appreciate the question. politico put together a little montage of jay carney's, let's say, tendency to repeat that

phrase. here is what it sounds like. >> i appreciate the question. i appreciate. i appreciate the question. i appreciate the question. >> i appreciate the question and the answer is, no. well i appreciate that -- i mean, the question and i really appreciate you clarifying this. again, i appreciate the opportunity. >> you get the point. >> make clear that. >> he has done that to me to. i just want to shout out, no, you don't. the other thing he was doing yesterday, which was because he was a reporter and a damn good reporter for time before he went to work for joe biden. he always says, you know, particularly me, having been in your shoes, you know, i appreciate your asking this question. so kind of ideas it but he was in a tough stot yesterday and i must admit he got out of it better than i thought he would. but we want to find out what's really happening with these two issues here with the help of michael mcleod because. senator sherrod brown, as well

as congressman john yarmouth. important price. >> as you head out the door, burger king is going after mcdonald's popular mcrib sandwich. u.s.a. today reporting -- yeah, the rival fast food chain is rolling out the bk rib sandwich on a limited basis this summer. like the mcrib, it's also boneless ribs or rib product. burger king is dressing it with a tangy sauce and sweet bread and butter pickles and other barbecue, memphis pulled parkork, and barbecue chicken sadly. >> i don't like the sandwich. i am nostalgic for the is sandwich. i get one every season. >> are you going to try the burger king one? >> yeah. >> yeah. the hell with it. why no i will try one and see how it measures up.

>> a long time since i have been to burger king. >> see how long you can keep walking. >> prince harry spent time with governor chris christie touring parts of hundred-ravaged new jersey yesterday and he was even able to look the part. christie gave the prince one of his signature fleeces he has known to wear. later he played harlem baseball. >> prince harry on the jersey shore. what could possibly go wrong? >> i liked he got one. i hope it's not christie size. he could grow vegetables during the winter with that fleece. he couldn't wear it. >> he got his own fleece with his name on it, i believe. >> he did not play cricket. they played baseball. >> no. no. the season finale it will be cast member he told yesterday on

the nbc program, it was just time to go south included james stefan and a number of game show hosts. he's not the only one to leave this season. seth myers is on the way out and the future are uncertain at this point. >> you know, the show has an incredible way of re-inventing itself but they are going to be missed. that's a big hole. >> for the first time in a very, very long time the last three or four seasons, they have really, really done a great job on that show. >> yeah. yeah. >> carville by the way is fantastic. >> all right. so, michael mcleod because here at the aclu. let's start with the irs. i really want to focus on the doj because i think that's the most serious issue here and it may be the one real scandal of the bunch. with the irs, do you see any criminality there?

any -- what's the real heart of the issue? >> targeting the tea party groups. >> you put this in context. the irs has a history of exceeding its authority going back decades. go back to the roosevelt, frank lin roosevelt administration at least where he used the irs to target andrew melon who had been treasury secretary in the 1920s kennedy against the radical right groups nonprofit groups and these lists, of course. and j. edgar hoover used the irs as his own special investigative agency best we know. in the most recent bush administration, they went after the naacp. there are all of these examples of the irs doing this. in this situation, we still don't know the facts t looks like it's, you know, a relatively low-level, minor snafu of some kind whether by design or inadvertent or through

income pet he knew. we don't know and i am sure that all of your colleagues will ferret that out sooner or later if congress doesn't. but the important thing is to figure out what it is that enables this to happen? i think that's the bigger and more important. >> people are saying somebody's head ought to role. they always say that. right? there is a policy problem here. right? which is these five -- most of these 501 -- most of the organizations that are filing and want to be classified as a 501 c 4 so they can be tax exempt are really political organizations. aren't they? >> i don't know if most of them are. there is a lot of legit 501 c 4s. thousands and thousands of applications and the irs have to processes these. the problems are in the rules that were determined whether you qualify to be a social welfare

organization, the irs has to make a determination as to whether your activity constitutes t as soon as you have line bycrats or political employees make that kind of determination, it opens the process. >> that's what i was getting at. the policy is not clear. >> the the rules are not clear. it's fuzzy and they -- >> right. >> wouldn't you say that would you agree if it's a tea party, it's primary activity is probably political? they are not having bake sales to help the homeless you know. >> i will have to admit, i am not a member of a tea party organization. >> no. >> so i don't know exactly what will goes on inside it. but the issue is not so much what they do. i mean that is the policy issue. >> yeah. >> we need to get the irs out of the bids of making that determination, but to have the irs focusing on the tea party

organizations and not on equivalent progressive organizations, for example, that's the unfair aspect of it. i think that's the sort of line-level snafu here, but if the irs didn't have to make that dermths in the first place, there never would have been the opportunity to make that judgment, to focus in on one of those groups. eric holder launched a criminal investigation to see if there was any criminality here do you think there is? >> you know, i don't know. >> that's speculation. there is going to be all kind of fact-finding going to happen. we will know. we will know way more through congressional investigations or media reports. >> more important to me eric holder yesterday, even though he had recused himself from this investigation into who leaked the news of this the successful

attempt to thwart an opportunity -- to thwart trying to bring down an airliner headed for the united states, he recused himself from that but he defended the fact that in that investigation, the department of justice sees the phone records from the associate press. any way that they could justify that, do you believe? >> william, you know again, we need to wait for all of the facts to come out and we will probably never know the facts because of the high level secrecy that's involved. >> that's one of the problems. >> that's always one of the problems when we are talking about these national security kind of issues. but it's hard to -- it's hard to see how they could have avoided all of the guidelines that are laid out in this fairly detailed set of guidelines you are supposed to go through when you grab press records. >> it is had a be to the last resort. they have to son sult with the news organization.

>> which they did not do. >> they didn't do any of these things. even if they complied with the guideline. the green is wrong. >> i want to play for you and our viewers and our listeners, dan, this is eric holder yesterday saying why he thinks it was justified in this case. >> i have to say that this is among if not the most serious within the top two or three most serious leaks that i have ever seen. i think it requires very aggressive action. the intelligence after it had been completed. >> yeah.

it seems routinely there is a lot of sort of fear-mongering in the wake of these kind of national security disclosures but the public does have a right to know what its government is doing and isn't doing. the press has this little first amendment right that it's got to be able to operate under. so i am happy to accept the attorney general's explanation there. he has done a lot of good things while he has been in office from a public policy perspective but in this area of national security and when we are talking about the right of the press to report, we always get stuck on this national security issue. if you go back a couple of congresses, there was an attempt to pass a federal reporter shield bill and it foundered right at the end of the session because they couldn't come to an agreement on a national security exception to the press's right to do its job.

the governmentes's interest in keeping things secret. when it comes down to that conflict, we always find out that the government wants to keep things more secretly than really there is a need to do. >> go back to the pentagon papers. right? in all of these cases, we have talked about wiki leaks and bradley manning earlier. all that stuff came after wikileaks, i have not seen any threat to our national security. >> i was thinking the exact same thing. the other thing that sort of annoyed me that in the wikileaks situation, you had these political figures outraged and we had to major the espy onnage act tougher it is which is outrageously tough already. now, you have folks sort of lining up behind the press to preserve the media's right to investigate and report. you know, i would love to put some comments side-by-side >> bill: so was the irs out of

control? and is the department of justice out of control? can either be justified or defended 866-55-press. your comments welcome. talking with michael macleoud-ball on this wednesday edition of the "full-court press." >> heard around the country and seen on current tv this is "the bill press show." that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal, or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i'm given to doing anyway, by staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those

people as well. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right? >> this is "the bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: 25 minutes now after the hour. eric holder yesterday i pressing

total confidence in the department of justice saying they did the right thing by going after the phone report of the associated press and jay carney telling us at the whitehouse that the president has full confidence in the department department of of justice. doesn't want to know what they are doing because it's a criminal investigation. they should not be involved in it. 866-5 pif 5-press is the toll-free number. join us in our conversation with michael mcleod-because with the washington. peter? >> back and forth. we have had a good conversation, debate. but here is something we can all agree is good news. yesterday, governor mark dayton of minnesota officially signed into law same-sex marriage is now legal in minnesota. it's the 12th state to do so. and gay couples in the state of minnesota can be married. the law takes effect on august 1st you are in minnesota and in a committed relationship

start planning your wedding now. august 1st is when you are start getting married. >> it is amazing the speed with which this whole issue has changed. >> it is astounding. wait for that decision to come down from the supreme court on the defense of marriage act. that will be the next hopefully good piece of news. >> it will take time to overcome the constitutional things in some states. back to the leak question. the obama administration has been aggressive. there is a policy. they have gone after these leaks with a ven he knew. over zellous? >> i think so. reports say they have engaged in leak prosecutions more than all

other administrations combined. that stands in contradiction to their asserted position that they are in favor of transparent government. they made a big deal about putting meetings online. their objections prosecuting leaks just is reprehensible. >> bill: i have to tell you the reason i am a member because when it comes to constitutional rights of all americans, the aclu is in the front lines on the job, defending us all. i really appreciate that. and thank you for coming in this morning? >> thanks for having me. it's a real pleasure to be here. >> bill: thanks. >> this is "the bill press show." [ music ] compelling true stories. >> jack, how old are you?

>> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way inside. (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current.

>> connect on the bill press show and tweet using a hash tag, "watchingbp." this is "the bill press show." >> bill: 33 minutes after the hour no high-on this wednesday morning, may 15th. a trifecta. the white house is on the ropes. jay carney this might be his last performance as press secretary. everyone came expecting to see blood on the floor. dana milbank from the washington post very seldom comes to the brief briefings, only when he thinks it's going to be big news. there was yesterday. i said, dana must be a big day.

you are here today. he said, yes, obama has managed to unite the press corps for the first time over the news of the associated press. we want to talk all things media related with a good friend senior -- sorry. senior media reporter. >> executive. >> dylan buyers. thank you for coming back. >> thank you. >> not only a good friend of the show but a neighborhood of the show. >> that's why i am getting the sleep out of my eyes. we are working on getting people from the hood, the full court press. people are actually shopping and buying houses on the hill just to be close enough to the show. >> started a trend. >> it's a perk. it's a perk. i haven't seen you since you savaged howie kurtz.

you were there asking him tough questions about the problem he was having. situate going to survive as host of reliable sources on cnn? >> to my impression based upon how that went -- >> you asked tough questions. you were good. >> i think cnn handled that very well. i think it was smart to invite media reporter. howic's credibility is diminished and has been over the last three years. i think he used to be thought of before my time from what i hear as this great media reporter who had all of the scoops and was driving all of the buzz &

everything. and now, i think he seems increasingly kind of behind the story. and then when -- the real damage is that too often he is behind the story and wrong. i don't think he will leave "reliable sources" and under the new cnn he will be phased out or maybe stay for the rest of his career >> bill: there is no replacement for him so far? >> no >> bill: at "daily beast." ? >> so daily beast -- he was officially the white house or washington bureau chief. "daily beast" will not get any washington bureau chief. it will be driven by john avalon. >> out of new york? >> out of new york. >> bill: talking about people holding on to their job or not holding on to their job -- >> yes. >> ari fleisher was asked what jay carney had to do yesterday at the press briefing. >> yes. >> ahead of this intense press briefing which everybody

expected to be and which was and ari fleisher says he has got to do four things, duck, dodge, dance and did he ever. >> exactly. >> this is fascinating. >> spoken like a true veteran. >> it is fascinate to go watch the press briefing while looking at twitter and seeing what ari fleisher is saying by giving the blow by blow. >> i have to say that jay carney did a pretty good job of ducking, dodging dancing and did he ever. what was your take? >> it was -- >> he didn't say a damn thing. ? >> there was this amazing interview he did in when he was the time washington bureau chief when he said, i am sure i would make a bad press secretary. right? because i can't simultaneously serve the reporters and the press administration because i would be harming integrity. he is actually very good at it. he is good at standing up there and saying i appreciate your question. and i am going to answer it.

i am going to take about five minutes to answer it but i am not going to actually answer it and do it over and over and over over. and then when the reporters push him, he pushes back . i think he is good at it. >> one thing. yeah, i thought he did better yesterday than people expected. >> yeah. >> and one of the -- i thought the most important thing that he did right from the beginning, because everybody said you've got three scandals right now. this is the perfect storm. this is the end of the world for the obama administration. >> right >> bill: he said right from the get-go. slow down. all right. now, let's take them one at a time. you want to lump them all together. benghazi, it's a joke. benghazi is a side show. >> right. >> everybody believes that except john boehner. so of put that off of the table. then he says let's take the irs. i am capsulating here obviously, but he says the irs, there is an investigation underway and until we know the facts -- by the way, that came out like two hours

later. but at that time it was a legitimate point. until we know the facts on the investigation, you really want wouldn't want us to take any text before we take the facts? would you? >> right. >> then he goes to the ap. he said this is a criminal investigation. do you want the white house to be snooping into a criminal investigation, an investigation about somebody in this white house committing a criminal act and that's being investigated and you want us to interfere with it? >> right. >> boom, boom boom: >> yeah. >> after that, i have to tell you, nobody could penetrate? >> one thing carney knows is that the press corps is thirsting for blood. so they are probably going to act too fast before they have all of their facts straight and that that's something he can use to his advantage. right? so you remember when the press corps was complaining about more access and they used his golf game with tiger woods to say that's what we want more access to. he was like, that's a joke. the american people don't care about the golf game.

right? so what you have now is a press corps, three scandals, obama's tide is turning. game changer. the second term will be terrible for obama and they are thirsting for this. and it would probably be wiser for them to take a little bit more time and do the due diligence of getting all of the facts straight and then coming bang to the white house with some serious questions that carney can't duck, dodge and did he ever on. >> i expected the worst and after maybe the first three questionsdefer on. >> i expected the worst and after maybe the first three questions questions, i thought i think he is going to survive this. i think anybody watching that there was very little wiggle room here. >> right. >> but let's come to the substance of what i think again i think benghazi is a political sideshow. i think the irs is a classic case of bycratic bung ling and incompetence and stupidity but the associate press, the department of justice going after the phone records of the

associated press which we have been talking a lot about this morning, i believe, is a very serious issue. >> right. >> do you see as the sfrr chief puba reporter for politico any -- >> i deserve a raise. >> wow. >> any justification for what the department of justice was doing? >> if there is a justification there is no indication so far what that could be. right? so they believe that the investigation was tied to the story they did about the foiled underwear bomber plot. >> yes. a successful flot? >> a successful. >> successful to stop intelligence operation. >> this was the administration was getting ready to announce that they had stopped this plot. the ap was working with authorities to basically say, you know, we understand this information is not safe to report now. when can we report it? and they jumped the gun a little bit on what that date was because they knew the add miles per hourstration if the

administration was going to announce it, why do you need two months of, like 20 different phone records? why does it need to be so broad and extensive? >> yeah. you make a good point. they did. they were asked to with hold it. >> right. >> they were asked not to report it. >> right. >> white house knew that they had the story. they asked them not to report and they did not for like four days or something like that. then they referred that the white house was about to announce it. that's when they went with the story. >> right. >> dan, if we can, here is eric holder yesterday saying, now even though he himself recused himself from this investigation, why he defends mr. cole did. >> i have to say this is among, if not the most serious, it is within the top two or three most serious leaks that i have ever seen. put the american people at risk. >> that's not hyperbole. it put the american people at risk. and trying to determine who was

responsible for that i guessthink, required very aggressive action. >> bill: put the american people at risk? >> there is no way. there is so much energy against the department of justice and holder right now from the ap from the press in general. it's just from bystanders. i think this is one of the issues where the people simplepathize with the press. there is no way people are going to buy that argument until they come out and tell us what the actual substance of that investigation was and prove that point. >> yeah. find it hard to believe. it seems to me the response would have been, aren't our intelligence agencies doing a great job? we've picked up the game here we were able to find out about this and inc. felt at any rate that group and stop that attack which on could have been a disaster with hundreds of people killed. let's celebrate it. >> right. >> instead, going after the associated press for reporting

it. >> i think part of the reason it's so hard to believe is for so long, the bush administrations, every story that came out that was critical against the administration, you know, either ari fleischer or scott or perino says this puts the people in harm's way. when you say that over and over again, you don't buy it. it's like you said back it up. >> they try to justify a lot in the name of national security. >> people are getting tired of that. >> a little, you know, skeptical and wary of it. you are welcome to the join the conversation. i think eric holder ought to be fired over this. maybe that's going too far. what do you think? 866-55-press. i certainly don't think you can justify going after these reporters records with the associated press.

how about you? we will be right back. >> heard around the country and seen on current tv this is "the

bill press show." [ music ] >> like politics? then like "the bill press show" on facebook. this is "the bill press show." >> bill: granite stateman john yarmouth, kentucky senator sherrod brown, ohio both in studio in the next hour here on the "full-court press" get that i can their take on the issues of the day. be back with our conversation with dylan buyers. caught this story from louisiana caught my attention about identity theft.

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>> as we talked about earlier, bill, we are taking comments on twitter @bp show mama for obama weighing in again. she is on a tear this morning. we talked about ari fleischer. said needs to lie us into war like ari fleischer. your expert? on the other hand mzatti said if i were obama i would take holder to the wood shed and then take his resignation. a good question from butcher, who asks, will jay carney be respected as a journalist after his stint with the president? you can join in that conversation conversation@bb show. >> i think it would be tough to go from press secretary to being a journalist? >> i don't think he will go back. >> he will go to a pr firm? >> i think some people feel like carney has lost his integrity or some would say he sold out and went to the other side. journalists get upsed when hacks become flacks. >> dana perino. she is on fox.

>> a contributor. she is not a reporter. >> you are right. >> i want to ask you about one other thing on this. with holder. i mean, i see it in the context, which i don't think enough people are reporting on, that the obama administration has had an obsession with leaks. they are determined. in this town you can't stop leaks. >> you can't. when i talked at folks at the ap, their number 1 concern about this ap issue was their confidential sources worked ease up. they are half joking, half

serious, you know. >> there is no doubt and the reason they go after these phone records or whatever, they are initem dating journalists so they won't do their job, they won't talk to their sources? >> right. >> they won't try to pursue these. again, i think the american people have a right to know. let's get a quick call in from bob. bob in what is it? friendly minnesota. >> thank you. i think eric folder should be fired, but i don't think the ap should have outed the al-qaeda insurgent who turned into an asset. >> bill: i guess that is one concern that by identifying him, as they did by name in their story -- i am not sure that they did, but they could put him and his family at risk. >> i would have to go back and look at the actual story and see whether or not that was the case. >> bill: all right. this is not the most important issue but before you leave an important media issue, barbara walters announcing that she is stipping off of the media stage

this summer. >> yeah. >> what a heavy of a career. >> hell of a career. it doesn't seem like a big media issue but it is. she had an incredible career first female anchor in prime time. ug you know, she is han done a lot and she has been responsible for a lot of the kind of defining interviews or, you know, her share of the defining interviews of the 20th century. >> bill: this is great op-ed piece in "the new york times" this morning about her career and the impact that she has had and, you know, the fact that there are so many women today who are anchors and hosts and media stars in large part due to barbara walters. >> right. absolutely. >> it does piss me off now that she was interviewing kardashians and that's how she has managed to be relevant. i think it says more about the media than her? >> do you remember, "the view" politically speaking "the view"

reaches a very large audience of a cougheted loading block. they get obama and rom network there. >> i think obama has been on it twice. he knows. >> the news media is mixing tabloid and serious journalism. >> dylan buyers, thank you forgive using us time here? >> chief pubba. >> radio meets television "the bill press show," now on current tv. [ music ] in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those

people as well. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right?

current tv, it's been all building up to this. >>bill shares his views, now it's your turn. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it. [ music ] this is the bell press show. >> bill: all right.

president obama with one big event on his schedule, gets a briefing with the vice president at 9:45 this morning. at 11:00 o'clock, he will be right here on capitol hill at the united states capitol building attending annual ceremony called "the national peace officers memorial service" which honors and remembers law enforcement personnel who were killed in the line of duty during the previous year. then the president back to the white house for lunch with the vice president at 12:30. >> that's the exact same time that jay carney will be stepping in the lions den again for today's press briefing. i will be there. you know there will be more questions for sure about the department of justice badge with congressman john yarmouth. >> this is the"the bill press show." that were just stinging my feet. [ female announcer ] it's known that diabetes damages nerves. lyrica is fda approved to treat diabetic nerve pain.

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[ music ] >> bill: good morning, my fellow americans. great to see you today on this wednesday, may 15th. how about it? they are calling it the perfect storm. three scandals, beating the white house all at one time. we will see how they aresponding today and take your calls and your comments about what you do think about this whole mess? certainly second term, second presidential terms always seem to get off to a rocky start as this one has. not been a good week for the obama white house. give us your comments. our toll-free number send us your comments on twitter @bp show or on facebook at facebook.com/bill press show. yes and you've got to take these

things one at a time. s jay carney did a at brutal press briefing yesterday on benghazi white house insisting it is still a political side show by republicans and everybody but john boehner and darryl issa agrees with that one on the irs the inspector general's report is out saying that the agency used inappropriate criteria in going after tea party groups exclusively. and on the department of justice now, there is the real scandal, no way in my opinion to defend the department of justice seizing the phone records of over 100 reporters and editors of associated press that is the real scandal of the day. and we will talk about that and a whole lot more in our last hour together right this morning on current tv. iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the

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>> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio and on current tv this is "the bill press show" bill they are calling it the trifecta triple scandals, there is really only one among the three. >> that's the department of justice and the associated press but the media is making a big deal of all three. we will sort it out for you. good morning and welcome to the "full-court press" on this wednesday morning, may 15th as always, right in the heart of the action with our studio on capitol hill we will look forward to hearing from you at 866-55-press, look forward to continuing comments from

twitter. we have had multiple twitters tweets from the same viewers or listeners this morning. so this is a busy morning in the world of twitter. our handle's@bp show and on facebook. be our friend on facebook. go to billpress -- here we go. i will never get it right now. help me out, peter. >> to get to facebook? >> bill: yes. >> facebook.com. >>/billpress show. start down the road track. facebook.com/billpress show. it's a great pleasure and our honor to welcome back into the studio a good friend of ours representing the state of kentucky, john crashmouth. good to see you this morning? >> good to be here. >> we haven't seen you since march madness. are you still gloating? >> we are still gloating somewhere after 26 years from the last one.

it was a great year, great team and exciting games throughout the tournament. the last game, one of the most exciting finals, ever. >> we are thrilled. >> i thought i had it great. if it's not alabama, it's auburn. but if it's not university of kentucky, it's louisville. >> we do. it's going to be very strong next year again. kentucky, of course, has probably the greatest recruiting class in the history. six mcdonald's all americans. basketball is alive and well in blue grass >> bill: another thing we want to mark and celebrate before we get into some of the issues of the day, minnesota yesterday big day in minnesota. governor mark dayton signing the legislation making minnesota the 12th state in the nation to do so. here is the governor yesterday. >> it is my on or to sign in the

law to promise to every minnesotan. >> the governor said it was a good day. >> what a day for minnesota. >> it's significant to see the states. >> the moment momentum is clear and a mark is a congress classmate of mine. it's a great step forward. the country made itself clear about where we are going with regard to equality of rights and marriage. >> is kentucky one of the next ones? >> i think kentucky is going to be one -- i would doubt it actually. don't hold your breath. back in 2004, kentucky passed a constitutional amendment. i think we are going to be one of the last holdouts. if the supreme court ruled rules

the way i hope they will that would be moot. >> i ran into your colleagues a birthday party from ed paramuta from colorado. so you are all back in town. what are you going to accomplish this week? what great things can we expect out of the house of representatives this week? >> we are going to spend some very, very important time voting for the 37th or 8th time to repeal obama kay. >> it? >> the one issue that's up? >> that's the one issue this week. i know that them to make sure that the freshman republicans have an opportunity to cast a vote to repeal obamacare so they are spending that very very dear floor time on that silly meaningless vote because it's not going anywhere.

>> that's the way we are. >> what do they achieve by that? it is 34th if not three-eight time that they have done it. you know it's not going away. even republican governors are embracing it. >> my governor not republican but my governor just elected to expand -- ax september the medicaid expansion and he did a thorough analysis and basically determined on a cost benefit, pure cost benefit analysis, this is a no-brainer. i think it's going to move in that direction. what i am concerned about with the at studs in congress right now is there are things in obamacare that are problematic. there have been some unintended consequences that have been unearthed that i think both sides would like to fix. we can't fix anything leanly slafbly because as soon as we introduce a bill to fix obama care we will get this kind of an

amendment, the amendment that killed the bill. if they were to go anywhere, the president will veto them. we have a real problem with implementation in that there are things we need to fix. i am not sure how we -- how we go about doing that. >> yesterday, defendants secretary chuck haggel announced their if you are lows had been send outfurloughs had been send out to the civilian employees of pentagon. they will lose 11 days without pay. not as bad as expected but 10, 20 percent cut for a lot of people. >> it's bad. >> not making a lot of money to start with. >> exactly. >> do you see any impact of the sequester in your district back home? >> you betcha. you betcha. fort knox is outside my district. there are 5,000 civilian employees there. many of them live in my district.

certainly, fort knox impacts my district economically. 15 or 20 miles outside of my district. all of those people will take a cut. it's 11 days between now and the end of the fiscal year. >> that's not just 11 days. nix year, it's going to happen again. every year for the next 10 years. me might have the impression it's temporary. it is temporary for 10 years. it's very, very serious. i was at the neuroscience research deposition every friday and they are doing some incredible research. i met a young man named rob summers who has gotten some national public blitzty from oregon. he was paralyzed from the shoulders, from the neck down in a hit and run accident in 2006 because of the research and progress they have made at the university of louisville, he has full mobrity. total independent living.

he moves his toes ankles knees and hips. he has sensations in his feet and throughout his lower extremities. this is remarkable research. they are begging move, end the sequester. we are losing graduate students because of the sequester. that's halppening at major research institutions. i had a compelling letter sent to me i am going to read on the floor later this week from a teacher who was one of 100 who lost their jobs not furloug ht ed. lost their job because of see questration. we are going to see more and more of the impact of this foolish, foolish policy over the next few months. >> here is the story, congressman. you know that there are cases like that in every district in the country and not just democratic districts but districts held by republicans, by tea party people. how can they ignore that? >> i don't believe they can

ultimately. what's worse is we saw in april the government ran a surplus the economy ask improving. conditions are so much different than they were in 2011 when we voted for the sequester. it's not only foolish now. it's unnecessary. the fact that we are imposing this pain and suffering and damage on ourselves makes no sense. >> one point, a headline in "the new york times", "budget deficit shrinks faster than expected." so, again, all of this talk about gloom and doom with the deficit and the debt and the most important prior to and everything this situation has kind of taken care of itself? hasn't it. >> it has taken care of itself. again, this sequester is not just between now and the end of the year, the physical year. it's for 10 years.

so we've got to act to get rid of it. immigration reform. we hear about the gang of 8 in the house. in the senate. it's very hi hear rumbles but nowhere near the attention paid to the senate. >> that's right. >> is there some serious bi-partisan effort in the house to get a deal on immigration reform? >> you have the right person. i am in the group of 8 that has been doing a parallel effort in the house. four democrats, four republicans in the house. until recently we have been more successful in keeping our delibrations quiet and secret. >> you sure have. >> for that. and what's -- the -- i think we have made great progress. we have -- there is still some points that we can't agree on. but by and large the big issues, how we handle border security, how we handle

enforcement against employers, how we handle the path to legalization and citizenship for the 11 million undocumented, how we handle guest workers, wimade a lot of progress in negotiating a compromise and there are some points that are tough. the guest worker program is one of them and what we do with healthcare is another difficult one. but it shows me two things. one is how that it is possible to horse trade a compromise and negotiate. it shows how impossible it is to do it in public. >> really? yeah. >> if we were doing this in public, there would be a thousand outside activist groups on all ends of the political spectrum attacking every little part. >> at some point, you will have to -- >> yeah. we absolutely do. i hope we are able to get something done soon. the senate is moving on quickly.

>> bill: i think they have another hearing a mark-up in the judiciary committee. can you tell us who the other members of your gang of 8 are? >> the democrats are zo love, javier bassier and louise getteres of illinois. on the republican siteside john carter and sam johnson from texas and maurice diaz bellard from florida and recall labarador from ohio. >> are any of them in the leadership? the four republicans? >> no. none of them are in the leadership but recall labrador is one of the key players because he represents the younger tea party element, the hardest line on immigration. >> bill: uh-huh. >> so he's very critical to the process and has been. >> bill: to what extent have obtain or cantor given you any

indication they will bring it up to the vote? >> obtain has given every indication that if we come up with a bip beep bill, but he is not waiting for that. he said we are going to get a bill regardless. >> uh-huh. >> he is committed doing that and bob goodwillad chairman of the judiciary committee is moving forward piecemeal. legislation. >> on friday, the first hearing will be heardld on the irs and whether it was conducting a political witch hunt against the tea party. what about this whole irs mess? we will get into that when we come back here a quick break here on the "full-court press" this wednesday morning. don't forget, it's a 2-way street. invite you to join 866-55-press.

congressman john yarmuth from kentucky. >> radio meets television, "the bill press show," now on current tv. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal, or is it

political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i'm given to doing anyway, by staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right?

shoes >> heard around the country and seen on current tv this is "the bill press show." >> bill: from one good democrat to another from yarmouth to sherrod brown, a little bit change of partners here in the next segment next half hour of the show. congressman, always good to have you with us. thanks for coming back in. we are talking about the challenges facing this congress and what we can expect or not expect out of the 113th, at least the next couple of weeks. peter, what is the social herbal media world saying. >> we are on twitter @bp show

where ann call says, just a guess but i am thinking the ap story won't be as big to the average person as it is to generalists. generalists. >> that's one thought and on the depressed, francis says, i really hope the congress gets to work on ending the sequester. people are forgetting pain. >> that would be wonderful if the republicans would allow that. i think the chances of that are pretty remote. >> have we seen the end of the been benjamin hearings. >> no. i don't think so. >> how much more blood can they squeeze out of that turnip or try to? >> what's interesting to me about this particular incidents is there is information emerging even today. the new information in a chris

stevens actually turned down two offers of enhanced security before, back in just weeks before the actual sfak. so the information that they knew the information was cooked and so on is absurd. there is now evidence that there was a memo that the oversight committee staff actually perverted, a memo that actually indicated that the administration's only interest was in making sure that any information that got out was accurate, that we got as much information as we could that was accurate. they were very concerned about misinformation. the briefings we were getting back then, within days of the attack secretary clinton came to the hill. we don't have any information. everything we say is liable to

changed. they were sensitive to the fact that they were uncertain about what had happened. this is a trumped up scandal, and it's being done purely i think at this point, just to essentially tarnish secretary clinton's record. but we haven't seen the end of it. >> darryl issa is going to hold it as long as john boehner wants it and he's got an obsession with it. congress will be holding hearings. how about now on the irs? ways and mean hearing scheduled for this friday, first of many hearings on this, i guess, as well is this going anywhere in your judgment? >> i think it is. i think this is a very dangerous. president obama has two missions for the rest of his presidency.

to protect us and second is to promote faith in government. he needs to get to the bottom of these messes. that can be his legacy restoring confidence in government. i think that's what he needs to focus on. >> given the past record it will be hard to restore confidence, i guess, in the irs. but certainly, we count on them to be right down the middle and neutral. >> absolutely. >> congressman, congratulations on louisville. see you back here again, soon. >> thanks, bill. >> this is "the bill press show." [ music ] (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision.

the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

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facebook.com/billpress facebook.com/billpressshow. this is "the bill press show." >> bill: 33 minutes after the hour on a wednesday, may 15th. sort of lime the perfect storm lately for the white house. it certainly was at the briefing yesterday. questions on benghazi questions on the irs, questions on the department much just of justice and it's got this down kind of really buzzing. to put everything in perspective, one of the important issues we ought to talk about, our good friend from the state of ohio senator sherrod brown, senator honor to have you back in the studio. >> good. >> i want to start with a story that's getting lost. i am afraid it is on the front page of "the new york times" but under the fold. the headline is bucket deficit shrinks faster than xhektsd. since the recession ended four years ago, the bucket deficit

has topped a trillion dollars but this year, it is going down. what's going on? >> facts have never got in the way of this sort of far right mission to cut spending. to them, it's all about shrinking government. there is no real evidence that conservatives in this country, the people that are called conservatives now, not tradition traditional reconservatives but that they want to do anything. there is no real evidence they want to reduce the deficit. they continue to preach austerity even though it's hurt our economic growth. contemporary politics around the world show that. so the budget deficit's come down partly because we have cut a lot of spending. in some cases as you look around now, far too much spending in some cases but the main reason is economic growth. and our view all along has been if you focus on jobs the deficit comes down. look at what happened in the

1990s, 21 million private sector job net increase. we had the biggest budget surplus in american history. those are not coincidental. those are related. more people working. more people paying taxes. fewer people on food stamps or unemployment benefits. >> meanwhile, republicans continue to preach and act as if the number 1 problem facing this country is the size of the debt and the size of the deficit. right? >> spending. >> spending. >> and, you know, it's really what they really mean is cutting any social programs or cutting programs to help the poor and the middle class. >> exactly right. they've never -- history shows that they have never -- they have never liked things like headstart. they have never really liked medicare or social security. whenever they have had enough pour in government to go after them 1995, when the republicans took the house for the first time since medicare had become law in 1965.

when gingrich took over they tried to provide ties healthcare. when they had a republican house and senate in 2005, they went after social security. look what they are doing with headstart. look what they are doing with meals on wheels using sequestration >> all of those things that matter to the daily lives of people. they don't think there is a roll of government. it's an honest view. it's just a very wrong view. it's an honest view but they are not honest about it. they don't say here is what we are really after. they just say there is all of this waste, too much spending. >> here's what gets me. and i was just out in las vegas with the teamsters union yesterday. i met with a whole group of members of the machinist union here in town the legislative conference. with the exception you, you and a few others, i find that democrats fall into the trap of talking about that, too. i start with president obama. he keeps talking about the grand bargain and how we have to --

are willing to cut spending cut spending, cut spending instead of talking about jobs. right? >> this deficit's come down about $4 trillion. we have cut. we have cut well over a trillion and a half dollars in spending. some needed to be cut. i don't argue with every -- i am not against doing that selectively and with a strategy. but this sort of meat ax accepting some things from the far right, corporate welfare and protecting tax breaks but we could end sec ration by instead closing tax loopholes for the oil companies, ending the hedge fund tax break that wettest u wealthy people get ending farm subsidies, which we are doing in the agriculture committee this week really would enable us to

end these non-defense workers at the dod, kids are getting thrown off of head started. millions of meals on meals on wheels won't be served. >> get the focus on jobs. >> when look at this recovery since the auto rescue in 2010, unemployment in my statement has come down dramatically significant around the country. what's happened is private sector jobs continue to grow almost every single month since 2010. but public sector jobs have not. we keep cutting local governments. in ohio, they keep squeezing local governments in order to try to balance the state budget and we end up seeing teachers librarians and police officers in local and state workers lose their job. so you can't get the kind of economic growth because they are dragging that do you know because of lay-offs in the public sector because of these

austederity policies. >> you have in a rare feat of bi-partisanship introduced legislation with senator david vidder from lou called the terminating bail outs for taxpayer fairness act, getting rid of too big to fail? >> yeah. let me give you a couple of numbers. >> yeah. >> 15 numbers, 20 years ago, the largest six banks in this country, their combined assets were about -- not quite -- 20% of gross domestic profit. today, the six largest banks' are over 60%. >> six banks? >> these largest banks over the course of the bank rescue of 2008, '9, between then, the largest banks have gone $2 trillion, $2 trillion in assets. when they borrow money, if j.p. morgan chase or bank of america or goldman, whatever one of

these big banks goes on the capital market and they get it three quarters cheaper than a community bank or anybody else can because the marketplace thinks they are too big to fail. the government will bail them out. >> that's the reason for legislation that these banks should account' continue to get sub did subsidies subsidies. bloomberg reported $80 billion because the taxpayers guarantees if you will. >> that's why snooirt vidder and i, a conservative republican with a progressive democrat, me have come together and done this. there is growing support in the senate to end these. it's not just too big to fail. they are too big to manage. they are too big to regulate. and as we saw not too long ago, they are too big to jail. the justice department doesn't want to go after them when they commit some kind of malfees answer because they are afraid

of what impact it will have on the whole economy. >> mal? >> we are saying they should be smaller. they can make that choice. they can build mosh he can quit equity, have capital reserves so if they have a downturn, they don't just downward spiral which is what happened in 2007 and '8. or they can begin to spin off some of their -- some of their assets. now, the other thing that the bill does that's really important is, there is a safety net for depositors in traditional banking, the federal deposit insurance company, if you have $100,000 in a bank account and they are 50,000 or 10,000 and that bank goes belly up, you have insurance. >> you up to 100 grand? >> up to 250 now i think. it is for 99% of the public, it's fine. but we want to make sure that that is only for traditional banking, not for risk kind of

trading and credit default swaps and all of the sudden things wall street plays in. right now, these guarantees are there too often for the risky behavior. we want the guarantees. we want banking to be boring of what it traditionally was. you collect money in deposits. you leverage it 4 to 1, 5 to 1, and you lend it out. >> that's the way banking is with some safety net behind it but the government shouldn't be building a safety net, shouldn't be guaranteeing this risky kind of behavior because it creates more risky behavior if the government is behind it. we are the ones oddly paying for it not just tax dollars but damage to the economy. >> the six banks are? >> j.p. morgan chase. i am going to forget one or two. goldman, j. c. morgan chase, city bank, bank of america, and i am leaving one out. i'm sorry. it's there. they are in the -- the largest two are now over $2 trillion in

deposits. bank of america and j.p. morgan chase. the smallest is about 600 billion. 600 billion $600,000,000,000 up to $2.3 trillion. >> those six banks, they probably have more lobbyists and more high-paid lobbyists in this town than anybody else. you know they are going to come down with both feet. >> there is a really good article in "the nation" this week about the bank lobby, the wall street lobby, and how they fought against dodd-frank and how they weakened it. it's still a pretty good bill. after the bill was signed into law, the chief lobbyist at this round table said, now it's halftime because they are putting en more effort into writing the rules or stopping strong rules. >> right? >> than they were into the legislation. it's just this insidious thing. the rules aren't even done from dodd frank. three years later, because of

the power of these lobbyists. >> right. >> the fourth, i wish i could remember the name. it's a nation. >> i am a subscriber. i will have you from it at home. >>mailed about four days ago. >> they are fighting the dodd frank fight still and complaining about even though it hasn't kicked in. they are going to come after you. >> they get it in my campaign in 2012. a lot of the money that was spent was spent basically undisclosed but came from wall street. we know that. >> he is a fighter. he beats them back. senator sherrod brown with us as well. your cars welcome on the "full-court press" wednesday morning. >> this is the full court press show. [ music ]

i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

>> this is "the bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: twelve minutes before the top of the hour. it's wednesday, may 15th. in studio with us, the good senator from ohio senator sherrod brown. how is ohio looking? you've just been back? >> i go home every weekend. i got to go to something i haven't done in 20 years. i went to a baseball double header where they played consecutive gavemes. saw indiana, yankees make-up game. not a day-night but a real double header when i was a kid. my wife and i and a couple of friends. it was so much fun to sit there for six, seven hours, watch baseball. a little cold. >> something to warm you up. >> let's talk -- shall we --

>> i left out morgan stanley. >> jp portionan, bank of america, citibank gold sachs and morgan stanley. the irs on a little hot water these days senator. as you know, this is not the first time the irs has been accused of targeting certain political operations? >> i agree it's wrong shethey should never target anybody. they have. but people should read ruth marcus. she points out the real scandal is how the irs has just laid down for all of these special interest groups from both sides, left and right. the right has been much more active in it than the left. but aside from that they have

laid down these operation have registered as social welfare groups and they have done nothing of the sort. they have not promoted anything but political candidates for or against. the irs has set by silently. i hope this in a counter institutetive way gets enough pressure for the irs to look at this and regardless of whether they are a karl rove group or somebody on the more will ib recalling side. they spent 40 million against me. it's not a personal thing. i won. nobody is entitled to a tax exemption. they should have to meet criteria, have to sign basically a finds saying they will senator shelton whitehouse has spoken out about this and did a hearing on this about how these social

welfare groups are basically not telling the truth on when they file under penalty of law, under penalty for breaking the law if they don't do what they say they will do and they are not. >> the real rub here is that by bung ling it the way they did and focusing only on these 300 or so tea party groups. >> little groups. >> little groups. right? the focus is on had a and they did not go after the big groups the karl rove groups. the idea that karl rove has a social welfare p.a.c. he is calling big drug companies and raising money to promote social welfare. they are raising money to promote deregulation and did he have feeding candidates not in their pockets. it's out rageous. that really is the story. the media missed that but are

starting to right about it. ruth marcus wrote about it well today. >> i have seen chuck grassley from iowa said we need some real clear policy or regulations or rules as to defining what would qualify as a 501 c 4 and what would not. i mean there is a challenge there, an opportunity for congress. >> the rules were pretty clear the law says exclusively social waffle. the irs changed to mostly which means you have to do 51% of something. they are not enforcing that. who gave them the authority to say mostly when congress wrote exclusively. grassley is right. maybe we need to write them again. we have tried to pass disclosures, filibuster by republicans. a handful want to see this. most republican senators and congressmen and women believe they like the system the way it is because they get so much money from the system that it, you know politics too often

sings with an upper class accent. it really does with this kind of campaign finance anything-goes kind of campaign finance rules. >> you are still fighting the good fight still full of optimism and vigor. >> that's why we like you. >> i will keep doing it. >> why we are glad you are where you are. >> thanks. >> senator sherrod ground. i will be back with a quick parting shot. >> go mobile with bill press and listen any time anywhere. this is "the bill press show." [ music ] (vo) current tv is the place for compelling true stories. (kaj) jack, how old are you? >> nine. (adam) this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines.

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>> the parting shot with bill press. this is "the bill press show." >> bill: all right. you know, everybody in the media is talking about the trifecta three scandals hit the obama administration at one time, benghazi, the irs and the associated press. i think they are wrong. there are not three scandals. there is really only one. benghazi is nothing but a political side show driven by hillary clinton hate-hating republicans. the irs is bycratic incompetence but for the justice department to seize the records of the associated press is a real scandal. phone numbers of 100 editors and reporters over a 2 month period. >> that's a wholly unjustified wholesale violation of the first amendment. there may be a national security issue that would excuse such abuse but this isn't one of them. reporting on our intelligence agency successfully finding out about and blocking an attempt to

blow up an airliner heading for the united states. we should be applauding that achievement. not hiding it. unfortunately, this is only part of the obama administration's obsession with prosecuting leaks. i believe that president obama should condemn this raid on the associated press by the department of justice and not only that. i think he should holder i can holder responsible and fire eric holder as attorney general. >> that's the potting shot for today. >> this is "the bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> stephanie: hello tv world.

sexy liberal hal sparks, hump days with hal hour number three. don't you hate it when somebody sends you a picture of their horrific injuries and asks if it looks infected. >> you asked what happened to my hand so i sent. >> picture. >> was there skin hanging off of it? >> i burned the heck out of it. >> stephanie: what was the purpose of heeding lavender